Nāṭya and current embodiment research

The lecture-demonstration traces a first of its kind cross-disciplinary analysis of the theory and practise of Nāṭya. Rajyashree Ramesh draws from what she identifies as a two-fold approach to meaning therein, to examine questions on embodied meaning and meaning-making discussed in several current fields of research on embodiment. The point of departure is the notion of embodied meaning from the perspective of Linguistic Gesture Studies in relation to Hastābhinaya - the gestural depiction with hands. Moving on to an analysis of the role of emotions and their corporeal expression in establishing meaning as explicated in the treatise Nāṭyaśāstra, she draws parallels therein to Antonio Damasio’s brain research on emotions. Finally, taking a movement analytic stance that draws also from current fascia research, she will demonstrate how a bhāva-rasa continuum practised in Nāṭya exemplifies the very notion of a primordially fundamental and felt embodied meaning-making process.